I'm not sure about that one myself. I know it's an invaluable experience playing finals but continually losing can build up the monkey on the back and the pressure becomes palpable. For many new faces, they would be entering with a 1-5 finals record and chances are, that would be 1-6 with the only win coming against Port Adelaide in 2013, thanks largely due to Paul Chapman's commanding performance of 20 disposals & 4 goals (fourth goal coming in the final term when Port were steaming back into the contest only down by nine).
I don't believe Fremantle were. Hawthorn definitely as they always pushed Geelong even when we were at the absolute peak of our powers but that Fremantle side of 2012 & 2013 comprised of such names as Zac Dawson, Keppler Bradley, Adam McPhee & Alex Silvagni and still made Geelong look very second rate.
Keep in mind we finished a game ahead of them in 2012 and 2½ games ahead in 2013 and got to play a home final on our home deck.
I think we stuffed up big time the week prior to the 2013 final series. I can remember having discussions with fellow Geelong supporters who believed resting players and losing a game the week before a final was thwart with danger as you don't enter September in losing fashion but Geelong knew Fremantle rested half their squad and they also heard news they were down by ten goals at halftime to St Kilda at Etihad Stadium. Meanwhile, we were playing a mini final of our own against the Brisbane Lions (lol) yep Brisbane!. We played the game like it was meaningful and the consequences of doing so were emphatic.
This is not hindsight stuff either, this is stuff which was being discussed in the lead up to round 23 by complete nobodies on an internet chat site called BigFooty.
Still doesn't make sense because if so, why did Geelong go 10-3 in the second half of the 2014 season. Wouldn't we have dropped a lot more games if we were out of gas?
Any team entering the finals on the back of a 10-3 second half record would have their tails up wouldn't they?
2015, well, after that round one game to Hawthorn, it was blatantly obvious we had fallen so far away that making finals was always going to be nothing more than a fairy tale. I for one am glad we failed as it would have been another loss and I want Richmond to remain the laughing stock of the AFL in that regard.